Isda appoints ICE to administer swaps benchmark

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) today announced that ICE Benchmark Administration Limited (IBA) has been selected by ISDA as the new administrator of ISDAFIX.

IBA was chosen following an in-depth selection process, which began with a public invitation to tender published in February. The selection process was run by the ISDA Benchmark Committee, with advice from consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

As part of its new responsibilities, IBA will transition the ISDAFIX calculation methodology from a polled submission model, where contributing banks submit price estimates, to a methodology based on actual and tradable quotes posted on multilateral trading facilities (MTFs). This change is designed to align the ISDAFIX benchmark with principles published last year by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) for financial benchmarks, which were subsequently endorsed by the G-20 and by the Financial Stability Board.

IBA will also assume overall responsibilities for ISDAFIX as follows:

Governance of all ISDAFIX administrative processes, including oversight and decisions of methodology, systems and controls; Daily operations, including collection of input data and calculation of ISDAFIX rates; Ex-ante and ex-post checks on submissions to ensure the integrity of the benchmark.

The transition to an MTF-based approach is expected to occur before the end of 2014, starting with euro and followed by dollar and sterling. The final date for the transfer of ISDAFIX benchmark rates to IBA will be confirmed once terms have been finalized with regulated trading venues.